I thought it'd be better if I posted my activity here for ease of finding.
--
The EFA (Electronic Frontiers Australia) is an organisation that fights for internet-related causes for citizens. Currently, they are focused on the better NBN scheme (as the new government plans to scale the scheme back), but in the past they have focused on issues like copyrights and new classifications for video games. They post on Facebook anything related to their topics of discussion, from articles to memes to their own responses. The EFA post usually once or twice a day and could benefit from scheduling their posts for maximum traction.
Overall, the design of their banner and colour scheme does not detract from their information and they present on topic articles with insightful and well-written additional sentences.
Week 6: REFLECT -- Lots of people thought Google+ would be a Facebook killer. Do you use Google+? Is it a Facebook killer, or is there another SNS that will take Facebook out?
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| Image: http://www.androidguys.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/09/google+_720.png |
The site is becoming infected by the amount of companies scrambling to make some moolah from users by slapping the fan page all across the Facebook network. People like me are slowly moving onto places like Google+ and Twitter, where information is still curated largely by you, the user. Twitter still ardently respects user privacy, even when it comes to Wikileaks, an organisation that made its name as a bad word for any first world government.
Google+ is I think the next Facebook. Its design is smarter, the privacy controls better, the choice of whom receives status updates is easier to define, the colour scheme is nowhere as bland as the blue and white. Google is constantly listening to the community and tailoring the layout based on that. And what's the best thing is Google Hangouts. Video calling for multiple people. You don't need Skype when what is on offer in Skype as a paid membership can be freely attained in Google+. People haven't caught on to Google+ yet, mainly because so many are on Facebook and pop culture still centres around there. One subject in this course takes place on Google+. Nobody has voiced concern over its use, whereas I know a few took issue with needing to sign up for Facebook for a few subjects in this course. Google+ is simple to use. It will be the social network where you put your expanded information (type anything over 140 characters to friends).
Twitter, on the other hand, is already booming. You can reveal as much or as little as you like on the site, depending on where your over sharing line is. There is a private Twitter function, where nobody can access your tweets unless they have your express permission to follow. Twitter defends your privacy and fights subpoenas, even if that privacy also belongs to racist assholes. Recently, there were issues surrounding Twitter's privacy giving trolls an easy and anonymous way to post rape threats to women. Thankfully, Twitter has revised its privacy policies to exclude that behaviour.
In all, Twitter currently looks like this:
And this is Google+, with its small (but massively growing) user base of mainly geeks and social elites:
And this, sadly, is Facebook at the moment:
Week 5: REFLECT -- Many libraries provide instant messaging and VoIP reference services, how would you feel about communicating with patrons this way?
The problem with instant messaging (IM) and VoIP reference
services is that I believe users have the same service expectation than when
they are in person at the library asking a librarian. The issue arises that
there is a barrier visually between what a user sees and what a librarian is
telling them. Whether it is through miscommunication from the librarian, or
misunderstanding with the patron, when the person telling you the steps is not
next to you guiding you, there is a distancing in the help they can provide.
What would be ideal for this service to function is a kind
of screen sharing program embedded within the library site with the ‘Ask a
Librarian’ plugin. Where the patron could see the librarian’s screen and be
guided, step by step, on how to use the service. Remote control desktop is a
service easily available on Windows PC and (possibly) on Mac, however that’s
invasive and a patron would undoubtedly be uncomfortable with the idea of a
librarian momentarily wresting the control from them to show which button leads
them to search.
With databases like Trove appearing, and even more records,
books and other collected and archived data appearing online for libraries, IM
and VoIP are becoming integral to libraries, not just as a patron service for
helping, but as a way of providing service to connect all communities together
to find the information pertinent to them. The Australian equivalent of this is
the Australian Libraries Gateway, a “free Web-based directory service which has
information about approximately 5,200 Australian libraries and cultural
institutions, their collections and services”. Indeed, when Trove was released
in 2009 ALG became the leading library “Trove Contributor”.
In essence, these user services mean that a library is
moving further away from standardised modes of helping find a reference book
and instead being a mediator between the patron and the information highway. As
librarians, it is our job to help a patron in finding whatever information they
can, and as the world is increasingly going digital, the services used to help
patrons with this are digital modes too.
WEEK 5: PLAY -- Session with Michael Feeney & Skype's Ease of Use
I chatted with my partner for assignment 2, Michael Feeney, on Skype last night. Our discussion centred around Feeney's idea for our assignment's proposal on 3D printing.
Skype is the fundamental form of quick communication across a broad range of platforms. The service is available on tablet, phone, PC, Mac and television. Text, audio and video options are available, along with emoticons. The difference between Skype and other forms is its ease of use. Simply pick a contact and those there options are there in easy-to-find green buttons. Skype puts this instantaneous visual and audio communication at its forefront, whereas Facebook Chat and Google Talk put these services on a sidebar, as an add-on to their main applications and stripped of functions depending on which platform. Skype can be picked up by anyone. My grandfather at 88, still learning how to use a computer, learnt first and easiest how to use Skype.
The buttons are well designed to be universally understood:
We have a beginning on our assignment using the service needed for the week 5 blog. Two birds, one stone.
Skype is the fundamental form of quick communication across a broad range of platforms. The service is available on tablet, phone, PC, Mac and television. Text, audio and video options are available, along with emoticons. The difference between Skype and other forms is its ease of use. Simply pick a contact and those there options are there in easy-to-find green buttons. Skype puts this instantaneous visual and audio communication at its forefront, whereas Facebook Chat and Google Talk put these services on a sidebar, as an add-on to their main applications and stripped of functions depending on which platform. Skype can be picked up by anyone. My grandfather at 88, still learning how to use a computer, learnt first and easiest how to use Skype.
The buttons are well designed to be universally understood:
The conversation between Feeney and I stayed mainly on course. We traded planning strategies and came up with a definite start point for our assignment, even if it is quite a while away. I am happy with how it turned out.
I'm not sure what else to say as the experience of using Skype is something I do daily. I remember MSN used to fulfil this gap of instantaneous discussion with friends and family that's quicker than email and without the brevity of Twitter (or Myspace as it was back then). I communicate with friends over audio, which is great, because we can participate in a program over the top of Skype's existing call. Ventrilo is the most streamlined version of this service, although you can't video chat. Skype's ease of video calling is where it scores the most points. It is the service of choice when I want to call up a friend (price is free PC to PC) and chat while doing something else, like playing a game or typing an assignment.
Week 3: REFLECT - How does microblogging help your learning?
I see the microblogging platforms I use as ways of gaining the information of the day and finding information on certain subjects I would have otherwise missed, had I used the wider internet or watched TV, or even read the newspaper (shown to be a dying past-time).
Twitter is where I find information quickest, and learn plenty more viewpoints, interesting and more often than not bizarre news articles, and great pieces pertaining to my industry, and some fun ones too.
On Facebook is where I post articles I personally learnt something from, and where discussion about these articles can take place. Unrestricted in word length, unlike Twitter, people can post thought out, measured discussion. It's also a way to keep in contact with peers, whereas Twitter is more for keeping in contact with industry names and seeing what projects are happening in libraries around the globe.
Facebook is where I can tune in to find information about my industry and the subjects I'm studying, as more and more of my course utilises social media. I've found people in my course are hesitant to use Twitter. They seem afraid of the 140 character limit and how Twitter is in the public spotlight. I find it's easy. You simply have to know when something is right to post in the public domain, and when something isn't. The most important thing is to participate in discussion. Don't passively read people's updates. This is what separates Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is like little hubs of conversation underneath each post that interests you. Twitter is constantly in discussion about anything and you can have these discussions with anyone. A polar bear could theoretically sign up to Twitter and tweet you something.
Twitter is not the closed community of Facebook, and that's probably the best and worst thing I've learnt from the platform. With that in mind, libraries are best to utilise Twitter as a way of reaching out to users. Information needs to be made public, and Twitter is the best platform for that.
Twitter is where I find information quickest, and learn plenty more viewpoints, interesting and more often than not bizarre news articles, and great pieces pertaining to my industry, and some fun ones too.
On Facebook is where I post articles I personally learnt something from, and where discussion about these articles can take place. Unrestricted in word length, unlike Twitter, people can post thought out, measured discussion. It's also a way to keep in contact with peers, whereas Twitter is more for keeping in contact with industry names and seeing what projects are happening in libraries around the globe.
Facebook is where I can tune in to find information about my industry and the subjects I'm studying, as more and more of my course utilises social media. I've found people in my course are hesitant to use Twitter. They seem afraid of the 140 character limit and how Twitter is in the public spotlight. I find it's easy. You simply have to know when something is right to post in the public domain, and when something isn't. The most important thing is to participate in discussion. Don't passively read people's updates. This is what separates Twitter and Facebook. Facebook is like little hubs of conversation underneath each post that interests you. Twitter is constantly in discussion about anything and you can have these discussions with anyone. A polar bear could theoretically sign up to Twitter and tweet you something.
Twitter is not the closed community of Facebook, and that's probably the best and worst thing I've learnt from the platform. With that in mind, libraries are best to utilise Twitter as a way of reaching out to users. Information needs to be made public, and Twitter is the best platform for that.
Week 2: REFLECT -- My Online Identity
My
online identity today exists in the places I referred to in the previous post
(Twitter, Facebook, to a lesser degree blogs and Google+) and by far the
most active is Twitter. I have had the title of 'Twitter King' bestowed upon me
by my peers, and I find this both endearing and a sign that perhaps I use the
platform a little too much. Near the end of school and for the first half of my
undergrad, I stuck to Facebook for nearly everything. Now it's become a news
feed where I post one or two statements above articles from the web that
interest me. Occasionally debates will start up, but it's nothing compared to
the deluge of tweets I send.
I
reached out to Twitter to help describe my online identity there, as I felt
that if I were to do it, there would be inherent narcissism.
I find that in the 140 character length available my
tweets can become sarcastic and to the point. I never intend my tweets to go that way, but given the brevity of the service it becomes difficult to have an extended discussion on something. Twitter lends itself to being overly dismissive/shallow.@benharkin Do we need to be honest? :)
— David Whatson (@Tokoyoto) August 8, 2013
@benharkin Hmmm... acerbic is the first thing that pops into my head.
— David Whatson (@Tokoyoto) August 8, 2013
@benharkin Detailed.
— Kieran (@KikiTheRed) August 8, 2013
@benharkin When you tweet about an issue you are quite detailed... Your stories can run for ten to fifteen tweets on the one topic.
— Kieran (@KikiTheRed) August 8, 2013
@benharkin Long winded maybe? (in a good way) :P
— Kieran (@KikiTheRed) August 8, 2013
@benharkin Also hilaaaaariousThat last one best outlines what I try to be online. It’s not all fun and games, of course, I do try to be informative and thoughtful in my discourse. But generally, I am not on Twitter for the straight-laced, serious and uncompromising discussions. However, I find myself being drawn more and more into those discussions. I would say my Twitter identity has been successful. Indeed, being known as the ‘Twitter King’ is a title worthy of some appreciation, even if it is simply an indication that maybe I need to use less social media.
— Kieran (@KikiTheRed) August 8, 2013
I
also keep a movie blog, which is where I have a more serious, but still informal,
voice on the state of movies, which are good and which aren’t, and my imparting
of film knowledge. Sadly, the job is unpaid, but I hope to pursue a career as a
reviewer/commentator nonetheless.
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